How Depressing Entertainment Became the Norm

The Cracked Podcast #41July 21, 2014

Have you noticed that all the great series of television’s current renaissance are darker than the devil’s taint with a suntan? You’ve got Game of Thrones, where every likable character dies horribly and sociopathy is cruise control for success. There’s True Detective, a show were any given screengrab would fit in the dictionary alongside the definition of “bleak”. Hell, the critically-acclaimed series with the happiest ending we’ve seen recently was Breaking Bad. What does that say about us?

Cracked editors Jack O’Brien, Dan O’Brien and Michael Swaim asked this question on today’s podcast. Whether you’re looking at television or movies, soul-crushing sadness seems to be the new norm. Your show just won’t draw in a modern audience unless it’s got an antihero. Has something shifted in our culture? Can we blame this on 9/11? Or, has the darkness we used to put in our novels and saddest music just finally bled out into film and TV? Either way, it’s pretty weird that the Coen brothers started their careers mocking nihilists, then went on to make No Country for Old Men, the nihilist … ist film ever made. Throw on your headphones and click play above.